MU 102 – Musicianship II – 3 Credits – SP 2009

David B. McGrew – Assistant Professor

Contact: 570.585.9298 (office ext.) – dmcgrew@bbc.edu   

Class Hours: Mon, Wed., Fri: 1:10 – 2:00 pm

Buckingham Hall, R. B1

This course continues the systematic approach to musical concepts begun in Musicianship I. Subjects covered include: voice-leading in four voices, common diatonic harmonic progressions, dominant & non-dominant 7th chords, leading-tone 7th chords, modulation, secondary dominants, and binary & ternary forms. Functional keyboard skills are developed. Students will compose a four-part choral piece and a sacred piece in ternary form, and they will analyze great works from the Anthology for Musical Analysis. Prerequisite: MU101 [Description from the 2008–09 Online Catalogue]

(C = Cognitive domain, P = Psychomotor domain, and A= Affective domain)

1.   (C) Understand the essential grammar of composition in basic Tonal Music

2.   (P) Perform (at the keyboard) and compose (for the keyboard) clear examples that

            demonstrate a grasp of this essential grammar

3.   (A) Appreciate Art Music for its potential to be grasped on both an intuitive and an

             analytical, examined level 

There are many good ways to organize a course of study in music theory. Our approach involves four sequential stages for each concept (I–IV below) with three intermediate steps (a–c below). The student learning process can be assessed by evaluating where the steps are successfully passed from stage to stage. Individualized help can be tailored for each student if particular steps prove to be consistent challenges.

STAGES

I.    OVERVIEW: intellectually grasping rudimentary systems from theoretical analysis.

      Class lectures present concepts in orderly steps. Overview assignments are simple review

      drills.

II.  PRACTICE: physically testing and experiencing theoretically extracted systems. The process

      of putting overview concepts and systems into practical exercises is begun in class lecture.

      Practice assignments are hands-on drills that stress live interaction between concepts and

      physical music production.

III. ANALYSIS: examining primary works for nuances and variations within systems. Class

      content includes model analysis projects. Analysis assignments bring these prior simple

      concepts and experiences into contact with the maze of actual artistry. Primary sources are

      analyzed towards the end that principles are seen but reconfigured with a nuanced

      understanding.

IV. COMPOSITION: creatively applying concepts through focused composition assignments.

      Class lectures include model projects. Composition—the most advanced stage—is guided by

      limited composition assignments that stress the application of concepts, through practice,

      with analyses of actual works in mind.

STEPS

(a)  OVERVIEW →PRACTICE: theoretical systems are applied to simple exercises.

 (b)  PRACTICE→ANALYSIS: models for analysis are confirmed, stretched, and nuanced

       through analysis of actual pieces. “Laboratory data” is taken out to be “field-tested,” so to

       speak.

 (c)  ANALYSIS→COMPOSITION: nuanced system is put into application through small

       composition assignments. What has been viewed is engaged in personal practice—similar to

       the process of moving from being a student to becoming a teacher.

Kostka, Stefan and Dorothy Payne. Tonal Harmony with an Introduction to Twentieth-Century

Music. 6th ed. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 713 p. [ISBN: 9780073401355]

Burkhart, Charles. Anthology for Musical Analysis: Postmodern Update. 6th ed. Thompson /

Schirmer. 653 p. [ISBN: 9780495189763]

• Assignment deadlines are final. Late work is dead work. All exceptions are at the discretion of

  the professor.

• Attendance is required in keeping with institutional policy. Review the current BBC Student

  Handbook for specific policies. Students are responsible to sign in when an attendance roster is

  passed around. Students must keep track of their own absences—including reasons for each

  absence—in order to appeal any missed classes with the Academic Office.

• If you have a particular need (learning, visual, hearing, etc), please speak with the course

  Instructor It is our desire to understand, care about and help all students who want to be

  successful.

• Procurement of all required textbooks should occur prior to the end of the first week of classes

   is expected. They are available in our college bookstore.

• This class may be more or less difficult depending on the degree of familiarity incoming

  students already have with course content. The least prepared students should expect between

  two and three hours of work outside of class for every one class hour.  

• As a courtesy to the financial investment and commitment of time made by each class member,

  please completely turn off all cell phones, pagers, etc. before entering the classroom.

Weekly Grades (50% of final grade)

Students receive a grade at the end of each week drawn from their scores on homework, quizzes and intelligent class interaction. Timely feedback is very important in this kind of a course. Ideally, units could be covered on a weekly basis; however, the subject matter must be delivered at a varied pace depending on the musical background of each class member and the relative difficulty of material in different units. Given this situation, regular grades are earned by each student on a weekly basis. Students can easily track their GPA this way.

Homework is assigned in class and the due date is determined at the time of assignment. In-class announcements always take precedence over any tentative assignment descriptions or assignment due dates on a course calendar. Homework is designed to sequentially follow the pedagogical approach outlined above in “Course Structure”—Overview, Practice, Analysis and Composition. Homework is really the backbone of this course. By reviewing homework, students ought to be able to determine (1) where their learning is reliably grounded (2) where any learning problems occur.

Quizzes are primarily for the teacher to evaluate how well concepts are being grasped by students. They are often unannounced, and will cover content from reading or class lecture.

Three Cumulative Examinations (50% of final grade)

Three cumulative examinations cover class lectures and all content studied in the course at the time of the testing date.

                          Exam No. 1   Monday, February 09 (date subject to change)

                          Exam No. 2   Friday, March 13 (date subject to change)

                          Exam No. 3   Finals Week—for exact time check: http://academics.bbc.edu/registrar/